Chapter Text
Look, Tim hadn’t wanted to become a father at seventeen. It had just kind of…happened.
One moment he was trying to clone his boyfriend back from his death in some grief fugue state, the next he was slumped over the test tubes crying about said boyfriend, and then by some act of providence, his tears and Kon’s DNA had mixed to create the beautiful baby girl he was currently rocking to sleep.
Lila had Kon’s curly black hair and his bright shade of blue eyes, but the rest of her features—nose, mouth, chin—mirrored Tim. Not like a clone, because she really wasn’t a clone. Kon wasn’t either. A true clone would just be one person’s exact DNA. Lila had both Tim and Kon’s DNA, and it mixed together in the normal way it should.
If anything she was simply a test tube baby with extra steps. Post-mortem IVF.
With Bruce gone, it had been a bad time to have a baby, but eventually, the crisis had settled. With Tam’s help, he cared for and kept Lila a secret while following clues and dealing with the League and the Council of Spiders. He found Bruce, yanked him out of the time stream, and got to say I told you so to everyone.
But, Kon stayed dead.
And everything was still so up in the air, Tim didn’t feel like it was the time to drop the bomb that he had whipped up a baby with his dead boyfriend’s DNA and was now a teen dad (a boyfriend they never really even knew about—because they didn’t even know he liked boys).
And without Kon here…Tim didn’t really want anyone to know. Because he wanted to share the news of the baby with Kon first. Which was fucking stupid because he was dead, but Tim had a hard time with the irrationality of grief.
Even Tam didn’t know the parentage of the baby, because of this stupid mental block that Tim had. She only knew that it was of the utmost importance to keep the baby hidden and safe. And once they had returned to Gotham, Tim told Tam he had returned the baby back to her parents so Tam wouldn’t worry or ask more questions.
Before telling anyone about Lila, Tim needed to wait for Kon to come back—or for his mind to accept that Kon was never going to. Whatever came first.
Unfortunately, two months since returning to Gotham, neither had arrived and so Tim still hadn’t told the bats. He barely showed up to the cave, and limited his Red Robin outings. (Thankfully, by the time they returned to Gotham, Lila had started sleeping through the night. But, he still had a baby monitor in his utility belt and a constant feed of sound, so he could run back whenever she needed something.)
He still sent in his case work to Bruce and he still worked for Wayne Enterprises—just from home—and it usually all worked out.
Until it didn’t.
Tim’s phone began to ring, and he fished it out of his back pocket with one hand as he continued rocking Lila back and forth. He rolled his eyes when he saw it was Bruce’s number, and slotted it in between his neck and ear so his hand was free to cradle Lila. “Hello?”
“We need you to come in to the cave,” Bruce’s voice came across gruff, halfway to his Batman register.
“Uh, no,” Tim answered. “Just send it to my computer and I can review whatever you need.”
“It’s physical evidence.”
“Take pictures.”
“Tim,” Bruce said, exasperated. A voice in the background asked after him, probably Dick.
“Look,” Tim said. “I’m busy.”
“You’ve been busy for weeks.”
“Yeah.” Tim had stopped rocking Lila in his concentration on the call, and her eyes fluttered open. Her lips pouted and her eyes glassed over. “Oh no. Can I call you back?”
“Tim? What’s—”
Lila’s loud cry cut off whatever Bruce was going to say.
“Shh,” Tim soothed, trying and failing to rock her back to calmness. “Come on.”
“Is that a baby?” Bruce asked. Excited voices joined in the background, too muffled for Tim to discern.
“Uh, yeah,” Tim said. Lila cried louder. “I’m babysitting. See, I told you I’m busy. I meant it.”
“He’s babysitting,” Bruce said, presumably in answer to the peanut gallery of vigilantes in the cave. A chorus of muffled questions rose in response and Bruce grunted. “Dick wants to know who you’re babysitting for. And for how long.”
“Well, that’s none of his business—or yours, for that matter,” Tim snapped. Lila cried more, maybe at his tone, and Tim scrambled. “Lila, sweetheart, shh. Shh, it’s okay.”
“You can bring Lila with you to the cave,” Bruce said. “Alfred can take care of her. Give you a break.”
It was a tempting offer, but there was no way Tim was about to hand her off to anyone. Even being in a different room caused his chest to tighten and his lungs to shrink. Patrol was hell enough. If he came to the manor, she would be strapped to his chest as tight as a missle.
Tim didn’t answer Bruce, focused on whispering comforting words to Lila. Bruce spoke again. “We’re having lasagna for dinner.”
Now, that paused Tim. Alfred’s lasagna? That almost made it worth it. He’d been around the manor a handful of times in the past six months, but never long enough to stay for dinner because he had needed to get home to Lila. But if he brought her this time…
Tim did need a break.
He loved Lila, but there was only so many blowouts and hours of crying he could handle before getting a little frazzled. It’s not like the bats had to learn about her parentage. He was just babysitting, to them.
“Okay,” Tim said. “I’ll be over in four hours.”
“Two,” Bruce corrected.
“Five. Or never,” Tim asserted. It would give him time to bathe her, do tummy time, second feeding, diaper change, and nap time before heading over.
Lila finally calmed down again, her cries quieting to soft whimpers. Tim pressed a kiss to her forehead, and stroked her nose to soothe her to sleep.
“Fine,” Bruce grunted. “Four.”
With that, Tim hung up.
True to his word, Tim arrived with Lila strapped to his chest. She’d developed the ability to hold her head independently, so she swiveled her head, babbling at the landmarks of the cave as Tim walked in.
Dick intercepted him before he got to the bat computer with a bright smile. “Tim! Glad to have you back in the cave.”
“Hey, Dick.”
“Who’s this?” Dick asked, crouching down to Tim’s chest. Lila stared at him, eyes wide. She babbled incoherently and swiveled her head between Tim and Dick, her little back curls bouncing.
“This is Lila,” Tim explained. His voice softened as he leaned down to her ear. “Lila, this is Dick.”
Lila reached out a pudgy hand and grabbed a hold of Dick’s hair. Oh no. Dick laughed, but he had no clue what baby’s grip strength could be. Thank god she hadn’t shown any signs of super strength yet. “Aww.”
“Lila, no.” Tim pried her hand off Dick’s hair. Tim had read enough baby books to know that grabbing hair was simply a sensory thing and babies didn’t have the capacity to respond to positive or negative reinforcement yet, but he tried anyway. That way, he would be in the habit when it would finally work on her.
Dick smiled and tickled her neck. She giggled. “It’s okay. She’s adorable.”
“You underestimate how hard she pulls,” Tim said. He watched Dick coo at Lila, and warmth rose to his heart unbidden. Should he tell Dick that Tim was her father? For a moment, it seemed like a possibility, but then his throat congealed into thick jello until he forced his mind to move on to a new thought. “Is Bruce at the computer?”
Dick straightened and nodded. He had a more genuine smile now as he led Tim to the computer. “So, how old is she?”
“Seven months,” Tim answered.
“Who’s baby is it again?”
“No one you know,” Tim said. “A friend.”
“A civilian friend?”
“No one you know,” Tim repeated.
They arrived at the computer and Bruce turned to face them. He smiled upon seeing Tim, a genuine, rare smile, and then it grew a hair further when his eyes landed on Lila. Tim had heard that Bruce had started smiling more, practicing more friendliness and communication and whatnot since returning, but Tim had never really believed that. Until now.
“I’m glad you came, Tim.” Bruce stood from his chair and clapped a hand on his shoulder. Warmth blossomed. That was…really nice. In his focus to hide Lila from everyone, Tim had also hidden himself—which sucked. He missed being around. “This is Lila?”
Tim nodded, a little slower than usual. Lila reached out with both hands towards Bruce, babbling incessantly. She looked back to Tim and smiled. Tim smiled back down at her. Emboldened, she returned her gaze to Bruce and giggled. Her arms reached out again.
“Do you want to hold her?” Tim asked.
He had gone in, not expecting to take Lila off his chest at all, but he also hadn’t predicted how friendly Bruce would be or how eager Lila would be or how warm everything felt despite the chill of the cave. For a moment, he felt less alone in this whole teenage single parent thing.
Bruce nodded, and Tim hoisted her out of the baby wrap and offered her to Bruce. Tim’s hands stayed on her long after Bruce cradled her, anxiety rising. “You sure you have her?”
Bruce nodded, smiling. “Hi, Lila.”
She giggled. Bruce leaned his face down
and she ran her hands over his stubble.
Dick returned and took a picture on his phone. “This is absolutely adorable.”
“So, where’s the evidence?” Tim asked. If he had to continue watching his adoptive father nuzzle his daughter, he might end up doing something stupid like revealing that he had attempted to clone his dead boyfriend back from the dead and messed up spectacularly.
“One moment,” Bruce said, still staring down at Lila like she was god’s greatest gift to earth. And she was the greatest gift to earth. But Tim’s greatest gift—not God’s—because Tim technically was the one who swirled her up in a test tube.
Bruce led him to the evidence tables and they spent about fifteen minutes looking it over before Lila got squirmy and reached for the bullet casings strewn across the table. Tim tucked her hands into the baby wrap. She burst into tears.
“Oh, Lila.” Tim sighed and reached to take her from Bruce.
Bruce frowned and acquiesced with the handover. “What does she want?”
“She wants one of the bullet casings,” Tim answered, bouncing her up and down gently in a futile attempt to calm her. Bruce reached for one but Tim swatted his hand. “Bruce, no. She’s a baby.”
“She’s crying,” Bruce protested.
“The casings are harmless,” Dick called out from where he was training on the mats. Lila wailed louder, and he paused his regimen, turning to stare at her. Tim sighed. She had them all wrapped around her finger.
Before the decision could be made, Lila made it for herself. One of her arms broke free of the wrap and reached for the table. The closest bullet casing flew to her grasp, and her crying stopped, now filled with a smile.
Dick gasped and dropped his weights to come see the baby.
Bruce raised his eyebrows, appraising her anew. “Is that common?”
Tim sighed. On one hand, her telekinesis was getting better. On the other…
“I thought you said you were babysitting for a civilian friend?” Dick said.
Tim opened his mouth to lie but then Lila stuffed the bullet casing in her mouth and his heart stopped. He immediately took the bullet casing from her mouth, covered in saliva. “Lila, no!”
She burst into tears again and Tim groaned. His patience petered out to a stub. He loved her, he did. But she kept trying to kill herself and getting mad when he stopped her. Babies.
Tim patted her back, bouncing her up and down, and shushing her. He met Dick’s eyes. “She might be hungry. Can you grab the bag in the passenger seat of my car?”
Dick nodded and left the arena. In the few moments, silence dominated as Tim avoided Bruce’s gaze, which was glued to the crying baby.
Dick returned and handed him the bag. “So, you said you were babysitting for a civilian friend?”
“I never said that. But, I am babysitting for a friend,” Tim reiterated as he rifled through the bag. “A meta friend. Obviously.”
Bruce frowned. “Someone I don’t know?”
Tim shrugged. He grabbed a baby bottle out of the bag, and sat down on a nearby chair. “I don’t know who you hang out with.”
“Tim,” Dick said.
“Think about the superhero community,” Tim said. He guided the bottle to her mouth and her little hands reached for it. As soon as she started drinking, the tears vanished. “The parents can have good reasons for wanting to keep their baby secret and safe from villains.”
Bruce grunted.
Dick just opened his mouth again.
“And if you ask again,” Tim threatened. “I’m leaving right now.”
Dick frowned.
Lila pushed the bottle away, and started babbling.
“What?” Tim asked. Lila babbled some more and he switched her to his hip so she could look around. Her eyes locked on Dick and giggled.
Tim’s eyes found Dick’s face too, and he was making silly faces for her. Criminal. Traitor. His own brother.
“How long are you babysitting?” Bruce asked.
Tim shrugged. “A hot minute. At least a few weeks.”
Hopefully Tim could get over himself by then and fess up. Fingers crossed.
“Can we help?” Dick asked, holding his hands out.
Tim turned his body away, and Lila pouted at having her line of sight to Dick interrupted. “Not unless you take a Red Cross child care course. Now, the evidence?”
The night continued on with minimal prodding, a new Kevlar-enforced pacifier to hopefully survive meta baby teething, a plate of lasagna, and Lila asleep in Tim’s wrap as he left. He promised to send photos, and then he left for home.
A week later, Tim woke up to a text from Dick. It was a photo of four certificates laid out on the dining room table. At the top of each one read Red Cross Babysitting & Child Care. At the bottom read Alfred Pennyworth, Bruce Wayne, Richard Grayson, and Damian Wayne.
He almost burst out laughing at the idea of those four in a class with those plastic baby dolls learning how to do infant CPR and change a diaper. But before he could lose it, another text came through.
Bruce thought it would complement our vigilante training
Tim smiled, and a new thought wriggled into his brain. He left his room and went to Lila’s, picking her up from the crib and kissing her forehead.
She giggled and he heard Kon’s laughter it in without succumbing to a wave of sadness. Her blue eyes blinked up at him, and for once, Tim didn’t immediately think of how much he missed Kon.
Tim put Lila on his hip and picked up his phone, looking back at Dick’s texts.
Maybe, just maybe, he didn’t have to do this alone.